I plan to leave my mark on the baseball world; this is where it all begins.

A Brief Overview on the Red Sox year and Game 1 ALDS Assessment

Well, coming off of last year, everyone expected the Red Sox to win again. Our roster was the exact same as the World Series roster. We were golden right? Too bad we were continually plagued with injuries or unfortunate mishaps. David Ortiz’s continuous slump throughout the year to produce his worse offensive year ever in a Red Sox uniform. This is pretty much blamable on his wrist which has always been a problem for him. Other injuries included JD Drew, Mike Lowell, Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Julio Lugo and Clay Buchholz. JD Drew was on fire during the month of June only to be shut down with a back problem, but I am confident in a comeback. Mike Lowell hurt his hip and was out for an extended period of time. Josh Beckett, a candidate for the Cy Young award last year (and was virtually ROBBED of it) did not have a great followup season and was on the disabled list with various injuries (back spasms… etc.). Daisuke Matsuzaka went on for a while and had a great year, but he was really ******* lucky since he only went like five innings half the time -_-. I had so much faith in Clay Buchholz at the beginning of the season, and that faith has slowly dwindled away, to essentially nothing now. However, it is not ALL his fault. Remember back when he hurt that finger nail? Yeah, he went down to the Paw Sox and they changed his pitching mechanics which really threw him off which was why HE COULDNT WIN A ******* GAME (sorry). Manny Ramirez was traded to the Dodgers and was a total ******* about it. Seriously, in that last game against the Angles, the guy stopped trying. Sorry, but that just screams ****** right there. I had defended him COUNTLESS times against the ******** who never let me live it down for being a Red Sox fan, but now, he’s number 99 (wtf) on the Dodgers kickin it. Grr. But look at what we got out of it. Jason Bay. Jason Bay has been absolutely exceptional. He was so underrated merely because he played with the Pirates. But he’s phenomenal offensively and pretty damn solid defensively. I have no complaints. Justin Masterson came up from the Paw Sox upon Dice-K’s injury and proved quite successful and soon returned in the bullpen, which has helped to balance out the incoherentness of David Aardsma and Mike Timlin as well as the struggles of Okajima. Julio Lugo’s injury was ultimately a blessing in disguise since Jed Lowrie came up as a result of it (which I called at the beginning of the year, by the way). Jed has been great at short stop, errorless in the regular season (until last night that is) and is a pretty solid hitter. As for the other players: Jacoby Ellsbury (my future husband) had his ups and downs. He is undoubtedly one of the best fielders in the league because he makes catches that no human should make. However, his hitting was a bit inconsistent but he did make up for it with the American League leading 50 steals. Dustin Pedroia. Do I need to expand on that point? I think I will. Let’s just say: leads in batting average, leads in hits, pretty ******* good fielder. MVP! Gotta love him. Kevin Youkilis is quite literally, the rock of the Red Sox. He is so determined and has such a great mentality. His numbers were consistently great and he truly helped the Red Sox.

Game 1 ALDS Assessment Time!:

So, the Red Sox entered the playoffs as a wild card team and the division, surprisingly enough, went to the Rays (who, in 2007, were in DEAD LAST). They took Game 1 against the Angels (the best team in baseball) in a very intense game. Jon Lester pitched a gem, he didn’t even have an earned run (the only run scored was due to an error by Jed Lowrie). So we’re trailing 1-0 right? And Kevin Youkilis is on first and Jason Bay is up. Jason Bay has never been in the post season. So I’m sitting there and I call it. I said: Jason, you’re gonna hit your first post season home run tonight and it’s gonna go right in between left and center field. And guess what? Well, you know the story. 2-1. In your face *******! In the top of the eighth inning, Jacoby Ellsbury bats in Jed Lowrie to make it 3-1 and scores to make it 4-1. He is arguably the hero of that game. Not only did he go 3-5, but he had two steals to get himself into scoring position, an RBI and made this absolutely incredible catch to stop the potential rally. Masterson pitched a great eighth inning and Papelbon shut down the ninth. I’ve said it once and I’ll sure as hell say it again: Jon Lester was incredible. Absolutely beautiful.

How’s Game 2 gonna turn out? Y’all will see (but unfortunately I will be unable to).

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